Chapter 44

by Amanda Cast

A Bad Day

“I am tired of this,” the Lady of Varanar said. “Finish them.”

“That is enough!” Serene yelled before the hatchlings and Greg could open their mouths in protest. “I am tired of everyone trying to kills us. I am tired of people trying to take the hatchlings away from us. Get your black ass down here and fight us yourself if you find us so unworthy. We’ll kill you just as easily as we will these three.”

“Bold words for a foolish little child,” the Lady of Varanar said.

“Bold words for someone who is afraid of children,” Serene said.

“Just kill them,” Varanar said.

“That is murder if not execution,” Serene said and stamped her leather clad foot hard into the sand. “We are challenging you, you bitch. It is as official as I can make it with as little as I’m wearing. You are being challenged by children in front of Elves and Dragons alike.”

Pandora was uncertain if she liked where this was going or not.

“I have nothing to prove to you,” she sneered. “The challenge is not over.”

“That is a lie,” Serene shouted. Light flashed in her eyes as she bowed up.

She shouted something to the paralyzed guards but they shook their heads and sheathed their weapons. The woman in charge shouted something back and then the three left the arena.

“Well, that was easy,” Pandora said. “And you shouldn’t have called her that so that the—“

“Will you just stop it already?” Serene asked. “Cussing is the worst of their worries for bad habits,” she said. “They just saw us kill four people.”

“Manners and decorum…”

Serene rolled her eyes and looked away from her cousin. “What do you have to say to that?” she shouted to the Lady of Varanar. “Either to relent and admit that we’re strong enough to do what we must do or you come down and fight us. You were all about strength earlier. Apparently courage is not part of qualities your people value.”

“There is no courage in fighting children,” she replied.

“I agree with the half-breed,” the leader of one of the Dragon clans said. “They have fought to the death. If you still believe they are unworthy then you should fight them.”

Pandora watched her face, but she could not see the subtle transition in it. She could feel it though. It was as if two children were pulling on the rope that were of equal strength. Both were unwilling to give in to their competitor. Both would pull until they were exhausted, but then Pride chose a side.

“Fine, I will kill you,” she said and left the balcony.

She did not take the time to prepare as Pandora and Serene had. She walked right down to them in her robes. She pulled out her sword and did not wait for the metal gate to close behind her before she lunged for Serene.

Serene flashed up a barrier and she fell back. The hilt jumped back in her hand and the woman swore. Pandora had allowed her claws to fade back into her normal hands. She took the opportunity to reform her claws and then she rushed into the Lady of Varanar.

Pandora was passed the primary useage of the blade, but she could still be hammered by the pommel. Her claws found the armor but could not get passed. She called the acid too late. It fell uselessly onto the sand and fizzled as she was thrown back. Her arm hurt from the blow.

She turned back to Serene, but Serene was not there. Serene was beside Pandora when she turned back around, helping her cousin to her feet.

“Children should not fight adults,” she said and pulled back for a slice that could possibly cut through both of them in their unarmored state.

Pandora shoved her cousin down and jumped back. She lunged at the elf while she was attempting to recover. Again, she managed to get passed the blade, and again she was struck by the pummel. This time it was her other arm. She also felt something side into her shoulder. She stumbled back.

“Fine, I’ll kill you first,” she said to Pandora and turned to her.

Pandora tried to move her right arm, but something stopped her. The electric shock of pain struck her torso and she reached up to find what was there. It was a dagger. She gripped it, but the action hurt her even more and she let it go and backed away from the woman.

“What? A little pain is going to stop you?” she asked and held her blade out at a point. Pandora got to her feet and her right arm stayed limply at her side. “Shame power was wasted on a weak human.” She jerked and her eyes widened before she stumbled forward.

The blade slid easily into Pandora. Pandora blinked. She was uncertain if it had actually happened, but she could still feel the intrusion. There was no pain, just an uncomfortable sensation of something intruding into her body.

“Not how I planned it,” she said, “But it will work.

Pandora frowned and then threw up her hands and dug her fingers into the elf’s skull. Something snapped in her shoulder, but she was dieing. The pain meant that she was alive. Her death would not be in vain. She could feel the acid dripping off of the tips of her claws and into her killer’s brain.

“You will not touch my children or my cousin,” she said quietly and both of them collapsed into the sand.

“No!” Serene screamed. “Pandora?”

She heard her name higher up and turned her head to see the hatchlings. They were moving away from the railing and Greg was staring down at her. He was saying something. She concentrated on his voice. He was calling her name. She smiled faintly.

“Pandora,” Serene said again and landed on her knees beside her. “We have to get you away,” she said and started to tug on her hips. “Oh, gods, she… she… oh god,” she cried. “Don’t die Pandora. Please, don’t die. Don’t die.”

“Serene?” Pandora said softly. “Please, get the hatchlings out of here. I don’t want them near our children. Don’t… please… don’t stay here.”

“Stop talking. You’ll rip something else. Gods look a your shoulder. I’ll need your help. Don’t pass out. Please don’t pass out.” She gripped the hilt of the dagger in her shoulder and jerked it roughly. It did not come loose. It only hurt. Pandora screamed in pain, but pain was good. It meant she wasn’t dead yet.

“Serene please.”

“No, you’re not going to die, damn it,” she said. “you can’t die. You can’t leave me. I love you, Pandora.”

“That hatchlings.”

“Oh, thank the gods, Greg, you’re here,” she said, but Pandora could not see him. She could not see.

“I’m dieing,” Pandora told them.

“No, you’re not,” Serene told her. “Greg, pull out the sword.”

“What? She’ll bleed to death,” she heard Greg say.

“Just pull the damn thing out,” Serene screamed.

She felt it slide out. It hurt worse than when it went in. She groaned. She could feel her blood all over her midriff. It was hot and smelled of salt and iron. “I love you, Serene.”

~*~

“Well, you did it again,” a familiar voice said in that familiar sarcastic way. “Do you want to die?”

“Hm?” Pandora opened her eyes. She was in the white room again. No, the white space that stretched on into eternity. She ran her hands over her torso and shoulder. There was no pain. “Am I… I mean, are we dead?”

“No, not yet anyway. What in the world were you thinking?”

“I didn’t challenge her,” Pandora said defensively and got to her feet. “Serene challenged her.”

“Serene is crazy and needs to get her temper in control,” her subconscious said, “But then you already knew that. We knew it was a bad idea from the get go, but you know how she is. I can’t blame her though. She was infuriating.”

“Yeah, she didn’t do that reputation of the underdark elves any favors.”

“They are a bunch of freaks,” the subconscious said. “Can you believe that whole cat thing? Fuh-reaks,” she said and sat down right into a chair that suddenly appeared. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take Serene to revive you or even if she will. You were pretty heavily injured.”

“I guess.”

“Well, you were. There is no guessing to it.” She rolled her eyes and crossed her legs at the knees and her foot bounced up and down.

Pandora sighed. “I really do hate myself,” she said.

“Obviously. You never let me come out and play. You have to try and kill yourself for me to even get to talk to you.”

Pandora looked away from her subconscious. “Why do you have to be so annoying?”

“I’m no more annoying than Serene is. Actually, I’m a lot like her. I bet her subconscious is a lot like you. Oooo, conflicting.”

Pandora sighed again. “And we were talking about the UD elves being freaks,” Pandora said, though she had not really intended to do so. She sighed heavily once again.

“We really aren’t that strange, I’m sure. Plenty of people have subconsciouses.”

“So, what did you want to tell me this time?”

“Oh, I just wanted to slap you and call you an idiot. I can’t believe you get yourself into these messes. If we survive this, I swear to God that I am going to kill you and take over.”

“The thought of that makes me feel sick.”

“Oh, that’s just you waking up.”

“Great. Time to get away from you.”

Her subconscious rolled her eyes.

<First><Chapter 43><Chapter 45><Latest>

Chapter 43

by Amanda Cast

Stuck

In the center of the preparation chambers there was pool of water for bathing. It was cool and the feel of it on Pandora’s skin refreshed her. She wore the light gray robes provided for the combatants while they rested and bathed. The fabric was like nothing she had ever seen before. The fibers that crafted the thread were fine and smooth unlike anything Pandora had ever seen on the surface. The water from the pool slid off of it or collected in perfect little droplets as it did on an oiled surface.

Serene washed her hair and face from the side. She made it look graceful and easy as she sat on the edge. She was on her hip with her legs folded at her side. The robe complimented her slender form and crafted an angelic portrait of the fiery half-elf.

“I was told to come and help you pick out your armor and weapons since you own none,” a woman’s voice said from a shadowed portal.

Pandora and Serene both turned their heads to see who was speaking. What stepped out of the shadows was startling, to say the least. At first she was reflecting eyes of yellow and red. Then she was white fangs and a flat nose and furry face. She resembled a cat and a human mixed together. She had a long tail that swished behind her and long limbs and long fingers. Instead of two breasts like a human, though, she had six nipples running down her belly. They were flat and unused.

“Have you never seen an experiment of these barbarians before?” she asked with a sly purr at the end.

Pandora blinked.

“I am a creation of theirs. I cannot earn my freedom. I am Kit, the only of my kind and you are Speakers of the Surface world.”

Serene nodded.

Kit slipped in and out of the shadows cast by the dim lamplight. Her fur was a deep charcoal gray, but it was not enough to make her simply meld. “What weapons would you use?”

“I would like a knife,” Serene said. “Something small and well balanced.”

“And you?” Kit asked Pandora. Her feline face turned to the tall girl and the slit pupils gleamed red.

“I don’t use weapons,” Pandora said and looked away. She dipped her fingers into the pool. “When can I get back into my clothes? I want to get this over with.”

“You are in a rush to die?” the feline said. “You should enjoy the last tranquility you will ever know.”

“We will not die,” Serene said and twisted her hair so that the water fell into a drain.

“Then you will kill the other?” the woman asked. She was leaning against a pillar. “You are bold and brave, but you are only children. You cannot hope to defeat anyone that resides here. Now, what will you wear? What is your preferred armor?”

“We don’t wear armor either,” Serene said.

“Ah, you really are going to die,” Kit said and pulled at her whiskers. “You cannot fight without armor.”

“Why not? Kids do it in the school yard all the time,” Serene said. “When I went to school I saw it all the time.”

“It was not life or death, I’m sure,” Kit told her and the tip of her tail flicked just like the hatchlings did. “You are both dead. You might as well get dressed.”

“How did you learn…”

“How to speak like you?” Kit asked. “I have lived here my whole life. You would be amazed what sorts come here and there have been plenty of humans kidnapped from your surface world and sold for whatever price. All must have someone who can translate what is needed for them.”

“So you learned?” Pandora asked.

“Yes,” she said. “Now get dressed.”

“Where are our clothes?” Serene asked.

“You’re not wearing a dress into the Arena,” Kit said. “The clothes you will be permitted to wear are in those boxes. I don’t know if they’ll fit, but they’re there.”

Serene scowled, but she walked over to the boxes anyway. She opened it and peered inside. Her lips curled and the tips of her ears turned red. “They’re rags.”

“Well, you’re supposed to wear armor. The rags are supposed to protect your skin from it.”

“How are we supposed to put them on?” she asked and pulled out the dingy cloth. It was made of cotton. “I guess they trade for cotton, too.”

“They trade for many things,” she said. “I will help you.”

~*~

The sand squished under Pandora’s feet as she entered the Arena with Serene. She was wearing something to protect her feet from the friction of the sand, but it was more like a leather wrapping than a shoe. It slid over her feet and was uncomfortable, but she knew that once the fighting started she would not notice it.

For the passed two hours Pandora was both anticipating and dreading the battle to come. Now she felt as though the rags covering the more private areas of her body was enough to make her want to die of shame. Her face was flushed with embarrassment when she was greeted with silence from the onlookers. There were many onlookers.

“No one seems excited,” Serene said and picked at the rags that covered her chest. Her ears were red and her cheeks were flushed. “This is humiliating. I wish we’d worn armor. It would cover more.”

“Barely,” Pandora said. She had actually looked at the armor after what she found out what the rags looked like on her. It was far worse or far too big. “I wouldn’t be able to move in the armor that could actually cover something.”

“I don’t need to move,” Serene said and tried to cover her belly with her hands. It didn’t work.

“At least their not perverts,” Pandora offered.

“I think they’re shocked that we’re not wearing armor,” Serene said. “Or um… they’re doing whatever it is boys do…”

“That’s sick,” Pandora said and scanned the crowd. She found Greg and the Hatchlings on a balcony overlooking the area. The hatchlings had their heads poking out between the stone rails.

“Oh this is too much,” Serene said and turned to get out of the sight of everyone, but the gate had swung shut behind them. “Damn it.”

“Don’t talk like that. The hatchlings might hear you,” Pandora said and stared down at her fingers.

“We’re about to kill someone and all you ca think about is protecting the hatchling’s sensibilities?” Serene asked.

The Lady of Varanar stood at the rails with her long dyed hair up in a series of braids and knots. Her face was a blur in the distance except for that her lips stuck out on her face. They were painted white. “It is time to meet your challengers,” she told them. It was not stressed or loud but it reached Pandora’s ears none the less.

The gate to across from them opened and Kit slinked through, but she was not alone. Three others were also crosses of beasts and humans. Their eyes were slits on their heads and they had snouts rather than the flat face of Kit. Chains with barbs of lead dangled from their hands that were tipped off with black nails.

“They look like… dogs and lizards,” Serene said. “I think we were better off with the mages.”

Pandora took a step back. “I think you might be right.”

“I have an idea,” Serene said. “Turn to stone.”

“You don’t just turn to stone,” Pandora hissed. “It isn’t that simple.”

“Yes it is.”

“Take the runt first. She’s the mage,” Kit said and the other three fanned out behind her.

The wheels were turning in Pandora’s head as they moved and then there was a click in the gears. Her eyes snapped wide open and her fists clenched and then her fingers flew part into a wide spread. The claws began to form and she could feel her skin changing. No one would touch her cousin.

Fire rose up between Pandora and the deformed experiments of the underdark elves. One of the dog men caught fire and howled and yelped out in pain. The others did not notice or at least pretended that the incident did not happen.

Kit hissed angrily and flew Pandora. She wielded a knife. Pandora crouched and waited until she was almost on top of her before falling back and throwing Kit to the side with her own momentum. Pandora scrambled to her feet and hurried to get closer to her cousin. “Burn them,” she said.

“Mother!” Rubio cried out desperately from the balcony and received a kick in the side from the woman threatening to take him from his mothers.

Pandora looked to her side and saw the jagged knife of Kit plummeting down at her. She did not try and bat it away. She would have to trust in the stone skin to make the blade skirt off of her. Her claws gleamed wickedly in Arena’s light. It was yellow and bright.

All the better to see the carnage with.

Kit was wearing armor on her belly and she had a kidney belt, but there was a space under her armpits that armor could not go. Pandora found that spot with the tips of her fingers and dug in. “How are the hounds without their brain?” she asked as the blade scraped over her skin. She could feel it and it hurt, but there was no way for her to know the damage.

Kit stared at her and then tried to jerk away, but Pandora’s claws were stuck. She tried to dislodge them, and Kit let out a cry of pain. Oh crap, oh crap, Pandora thought over and over again. Something hard and cold ripped across her shoulder and it was her turn to cry out.

“Mother! Momma!” the hatchlings cried out and pressed against the stone.

One of the hounds stood over her and lashed out at her again. This time it went around her neck and he jerked it back. Even the magic did not protect her entirely from the bite of the metal into her skin. It cracked and blood dropped onto the sand at her feet. Kit’s corpse slumped to the ground and her blood was everywhere. She still could not get her hand free.

Oh crap, she thought again and turned her head to make sure that Serene was all right. She had a shield around her. They were too close for spells. “We are!” Pandora yelled and hoped that her cousin would understand.

Her breath was stuck in her throat and her lugs burned. Black dots floated and drifted in her eyes. She thought of Emerald and dug the claws of her free hand into her attacker’s thighs. He grunted and tried to kick her off and jerked his chains upward. Emerald, she thought dimly and then the chain was lax and Pandora’s fingers were wrenched free of the hounds leg.

Pandora pulled at the chain and took a deep, gasping breath that made her lungs feel as though they would burst. She then managed to get her fingers loose. Kit’s body really was dead weight.

“Serene,” she whispered as the hound man fell into a heap of fur. Acid was eating out of his skin. Pandora wrenched at the chain as hard as she could and it snapped loose as gold chains always did in the stories of bards. She tossed it to the side. The blood stopped flowing from her skin.

Serene’s shield spell burst out and the remaining two combatants flew back. “Are you all right?” Serene asked. “You’re covered in blood!”

“Not all of it is mine,” Pandora said and lifted up her hands. She looked down and saw that the rags she had covering her chest were decorated with trains of blood. Then she realized just how wet and sticky it felt. The blood felt cold against her skin though.

“I don’t see anything wrong with you.”

Pandora shrugged. “I think we have company. Freeze the in place?”

Serene nodded and a sudden heat enveloped them. Sweat beaded over on Pandora’s brow. She watched as the air outside of their hot little globe crystallized into ice and drifted down to the sand. The hound men hesitated. The entire arena was snowing and Pandora thought she was going to die of dehydration.

The houndmen started to shiver and then they collapsed onto the cold sand. Their eyes were desperate as they looked at Pandora for help, but Pandora would not help them. She could not. They froze in place and then the heat whooshed out into the rest of the arena. The rustling of cloth and hair filled the room as everything was lifted up by the magical breeze.

“Wow,” Serene said.

“That was awesome,” Pandora agreed.

“We could freeze the bitch,” Serene said.

“How much did that take out of you?” Pandora asked.

“I’ve never felt stronger. You?”

“Same. Don’t say that word.”

“Pandora, seriously, you’re going to try my patience with your obsession…”

The iron gate swung open again and three underdark elves entered the area. They had their weapons drawn.

“Finally,” Serene said. “Can we go get dressed now? This outfit is humiliating.”

Pandora touched her cousin’s shoulder. “I don’t think they’re here to escort us back into the preparation room.”

Serene blinked and looked back at her cousin. “Oh, you can’t be serious,” she said and then looked back at the three elves that were waiting for the Matriarch’s go-ahead.

“I am.”

<First><Chapter 42><Chapter 44><Latest>

Chapter 41

by Amanda Cast

Skirting the Line

Everything was carved with dragons and elves killing creatures of the underdark, or at least it was assumed that it was the underdark. Pandora wished she could stop and inspect them. The artwork made her feel something of which she had no familiarity.

Serene pulled her along and Greg pushed her forward. The hatchlings stayed close to her.

“They like killing things,” Topaz said in a hushed whisper that bounced against the stone and magnified.

The guardian dragons glared at him for silence, but he gave them his normal defiant expression. Pandora wondered if he could hear the stone’s story and see its maddening patterns. She touched his back. Emerald was at her other side.

Rubio flanked Serene and Star flanked Greg. Both of the humanoids touched their escort’s back. Serene stroked Rubio’s back. Her fingers traced around the ridges that were forming along his back.

“We are here,” Hannin said and the door opened on its own.

Pandora’s first thought was of the arena temple in the Temple District. Everything was red and black. There were statues of the black Shadow dragons that were the size of the hatchlings set in different poses with their wings spread or folded as the pose demanded. Scale patterned necks were arched and craned for battle and for vanity.

Red was pooled at their feet and pedestals.

The black skinned elves were crafted out of obsidian. Their head was made of a red stone that was the color of freshly welling blood. They held obsidian weapons with scarlet hilts and ruby pommels.

It was ostentatious. It made Pandora’s stomach hurt and her mind became jumbled in a chaos of red and black. Topaz pressed closer to her. Were the stones still talking to him?

She rubbed his hide, but the comfort she was trying to give felt lost.

On a black stone throne with rubies shining in the dim light sat a woman with hair died red. It looked like blood was raining from her head and cascading down her shoulders.

“Welcome, Speakers and boy of no tongue,” she greeted. She was lounging on the throne with her legs crossed at the knees. Her dress was white and slit high up to her hips so that all of her long, slender legs were showing. “Welcome dragons of Stone, Dreams, Fire, and Ice. My home is your home, my city is your city. May you be at peace and sleep satisfied and in comfort.”

“Greetings, Lady of Varanar,” Pandora and Serene said together and bowed. The hatchlings echoed the greeting and touched their noses to the black floor. No one had ever told them how dragons were supposed to bow.

Her eyes went passed the girls and the dragons and settled on Greg. “It is customary for the Lady of a City to be bowed to in her thrown room.”

“My people only bow before God,” Greg said with a deep, powerful voice that Pandora had never heard him use before. It echoed and vibrated throughout the room.

“You are with my people,” she told him.

One of the guards drew out his sickle blade, but the Lady of Varanar raised her hand to stop him. She said something to him in their Underdark language and he retired the weapon.

“My people bow only before God. For generations we have had no need for such movements. I ask that you respect that.”

Pandora’s brow knit together. “May I make a request from you, Lady of Varanar, from one Speaker to another?”

The elf looked at her with a raised, red eyebrow. Her lips were pursed together in irritation. “That depends on the request, Speaker.”

“It is Greg’s religion that prevents him from bowing to anyone other than his God. To ask him to do so is against the tenants of free faith that those of the cloth have long held dear to prevent more wars between the peoples of this world. I would ask that you allow him to keep his back straight and his culture strong. He is the only one of his kind in this world. He has a culture that should be explored and respected.”

“You are a child. You cannot imagine the importance that there is to bowing,” she said.

“In our world we bow in respect to those we view as our betters, Lady of Varanar. People such as myself have many betters and bow frequently. Bowing is empty to us. We do it out of habit, not out of respect or love,” Pandora said. She was uncomfortable and felt like an idiot, but she knew that Greg would not bend and did not want him harmed for his stubbornness.

“You do not respect me?” she asked.

“I do,” Pandora said, “You are a leader of a City of great wealth and power. You live and thrive in a world that is harsh and unforgiving, but I do not bow out of respect. I bow because it is customary to do so. It is not customary for Greg to do so. In the time that I have known him he has not yet bowed once.”

She narrowed her eyes at Pandora and then said to Greg, “What is your position in your world?”

“I am a king, a lord, a noble, a freeman, and the lowliest of peasants. I am all things because I am nothing and everyone else is the same,” he said.

She snorted. “A pretty speech,” she said. “For the Speaker I will allow you your straight back.”

“I am grateful,” he said and Pandora gave a soft smile.

The Lady of Varanar’s attention was grabbed by Hannin. He was speaking in the language that the elves used instead of draconic. Greg whispered a paraphrased translation to the girls.

“He is saying that Amazon here has heard the story that the stones tell.” The matriarch’s red eyebrows pulled together and she replied. “She says that it is disturbing news. No elf has heard the story since her grand mother. Only hearts that sing as a stone can hear it… I don’t know they aren’t making much sense.”

Serene agreed with a silent nod. Her right eye lid twitched.

“Hannin is upset because the dragons have been denied the tale. No one understands it who has not seen it. It is impossible to explain.”

“Is that why they’re so upset?” Serene asked.

“It has to do with a measure of a heart. None have had the heart who have approached the palace of stone. It has lain silent and still,” Greg said, but his face was wrinkled with concern.

“She doesn’t believe?” Serene asked.

“She does, but she is not so concerned. It is a sign of weakness and magic all at once.”

“Pandora is not weak,” Serene said dismissively.

“Will you let me talk?” Greg asked. “Anyway, I think they mean sympathy. Having sympathy and empathy for their enemy is a weakness of soul and spirit to them. They are a warlike people.”

“They can believe what they want,” Pandora said.

Greg’s eyes narrowed, but they were directed at the floor and through the hatchlings that were gathered at their feet. His expression was so intense that Serene began to lean closer as if to read his thoughts.

The dragon guards moved closer at the last thing she said and Greg said, “No,” in the same voice that he had used earlier. The guards hesitated. “They don’t want to be with anyone else.”

“What did they say?” Serene asked as the hatchlings began to hiss and spit angrily at the grown dragons.

“They want to take them away from you because you are not strong enough to raise children here,” he said.

“That is not their choice to make,” Star said. “It is ours.”

“You are not even six months old yet,” the Lady of Varanar said. “You do not get to choose what it is that happens.”

“They do not want to be apart from us,” Pandora said. “We are their mothers. We have accepted the task and will be their mothers until they decide that they will no longer have us.”

“That is not for other children to decide. You are not even in your monthly flow. You are weak in spirit and soul, Speaker. To raise a hatchling one needs to be strong and stern.”

“You don’t even know her,” Topaz said angrily.

“Look at them, they have no respect. No manners.”

“How many two month old dragons do you bring here and insult?” Serene asked and shook her hands hard at her wrists. She squared her shoulders and braced her legs apart.

The woman said nothing to this. “They will be put under the control someone older and wiser. Each will have their own ‘parent’.”

“No!” Rubio said and wrapped his body around Serene. “You will not separate us. You will not!”

“They are our mothers,” Star said. “They love us. We won’t leave them.”

“While you are with us—“

“Then we will leave,” Emerald said and everyone turned to stare at her except for Pandora and Serene.

“Why would you leave here?” she asked Emerald. “You belong in the Underdark. You belong with us. You are a dragon of Dreams and Mysteries.”

“I will not be separated from my brothers and sister. I will not be separated from my mothers. You are weak in spirit, not them. You have no idea what they have given up for us and what they have lost.”

“They are here with the dragons of Dreams and Memories to give them food and shelter. They are not forced to earn their keep in this harsh world. They have given up nothing.”

“That is a lie,” Serene said with her fingers stretched out taunt. “I have no idea where my father is. He could be dead and he is all the family I knew before I met Pandora. You know nothing about us or our spirit or our strength.”

“Perhaps I should test you,” she said. “You have heard the story. You are weak and your spirit is poor.”

“You know nothing of my cousin,” Serene yelled and Pandora put a hand on her shoulder.

“And what would your test be?” Pandora asked. She could feel the familiar anxiety pricking at her finger tips and gripping her heart and releasing it at every beat. She took a deep breath and felt the air fill her lungs with every nerve.

“Perhaps combat to the death,” she said.

Pandora frowned. “Why to the death?’ she asked.

“Is there no more strength than in taking a life?” she asked.

Pandora was not a killer, though she would kill to protect those that meant the most to her, she did not want to go out of her way to take a life. “The weak must kill their enemy to ensure their survival,” Pandora said, remembering something she had read once, “One of strength can spare their foe and fear not for their life.”

“Your foe uses resources you and yours could use,” she told Pandora.

“My concern in this is small,” Pandora said. “If you are unhappy with my family then we shall take our chances in the caverns and leave.”

“You would disrespect me and face a chance of execution?” she asked. “It will not be pleasant.”

“I would leave. If you would not let me then I suppose I will have to fight to the death if need be. I would rather not have it come to that. Life is a precious thing that should not be taken lightly.”

“Do you think we take our lives lightly?”

“I think you hunger for mortality,” she said simply. “You fight and kill because you can die and gain peace in no other way.”

“I have given you one boon, Speaker, and I will give you no other. If you wish to keep your children and your friend then you and your cousin must prove that you deserve the right to raise them.”

“Then we will,” Serene said. “I’ll take out an army of dragons for my children.”

“You are a child,” the Lady of Varanar said, “And you will die a child.”

<First><Chapter 40><Chapter 42><Latest>